Larry David
2009-01-12 19:28:51 UTC
Hi everyone - just subbed to the list. I am hoping someone(s) here
can answer a few questions for me.
First, to help better understand where I'm coming from, a little
background. I studied EE in the 80's, using DOS, Mac, and Unix
machines. DOS was ok, Mac was cool, and Unix was awesome (and
Windows, when it arrived, was a blatant and poor rip-off of Mac OS -
and still is!) Later in the 90's I worked at GM for a while and used
a proprietary GUI (maybe by HP?) over Unix, and I was in heaven.
Terminal right there when I needed it (which wasn't all the time - I
was a user, not an admin or programmer), and a nice, uncluttered, non-
resource-wasting desktop - with switchable workspaces(!) so I could
have all kinds of windows up at once and stay organized.
At home I have had Macs since 98 or so - haven't owned a windows
machine since, to my great joy. I like Macs a lot, but there are
drawbacks, not the least of which is the price. (Also Apple's social/
political worldview is sometimes in conflict with my own, but that
has yet to keep me from buying their stuff.) I think Apple computers
are worth every penny they charge, but they are like Cadillacs, and I
drive a Daewoo Kalos (called an Aveo in the US). :-)
So my G4 powerbook is showing its age and I am thinking of a new
laptop. I use it for work (teaching math part-time, 80 hours a week,
since losing my job along with half the state), and rely on it
daily. I can't really afford a new macbook (though they look really
cool) - I've considered a refurbished one, but they are still a
little pricey for me. Long story short, I checked into Linux again
(knew about it for years, but never had a reason to investigate as I
was happy with Macs when I could afford them). Linux on a cheaper
laptop sounds promising; if it works and if I don't have to become a
programmer get software and hardware to work with it. (I'm also kind
of excited by the idea of FOSS - mostly the open source part, but
won't take the time to get into that now.)
Which leads to my questions:
1. I am under the impression that Linux (ubuntu in particular) is
much like the GUI-on-top-of-Unix OS that I loved at GM - only on my
little laptop and not a $30k workstation, and its "GNU Not Unix", and
its open source, etc.. - but the general idea is the same. Is this
the case? (This aspect of OSX is the main thing I like about it,
though the GUI is more than a bit overdone for my tastes.)
2. Does ubuntu use less system resources for the GUI in particular,
and generally have less bloat, than Windows and/or Mac OS? (I am
thinking about the built-in obsolescence of proprietary OS machines
and hoping that a Linux machine will have a longer lifespan and be
more tweekable to that end.)
3. Is there a good web filter for Linux? I use K-9 web protection
on my macs and it seems to work fine (but they don't seem to have a
Linux version, though it is freeware) - I like to have a filter to
help me and my kids avoid all the crap I don't want to run into on
the web...
4. Does anyone here do music on a Linux machine? What SW/HW do you
use? Ardour looks cool, but its hard to believe that it could be
really useful *and* free. (I use DP 4 on my G4s with an 828mkII, I
don't need all of its capabilities - but I do need a MIDI sequencer
and 24+ tracks of audio, with plug-in capability - and the ability to
use soft-synths would be nice too.) I have checked the alsa and
ffado sites for HW compatibility and all the devices listed seem
several years old - and many of them are "unkown" or "untested",
which makes me leery to be the guinea pig. At this point I would
still have my G4 desktop, but I am thinking about switching all my
machines to Linux, since I don't want to buy a new machine/software
every few years just to be able to do the same thing I could years
ago. (This question may best be taken off-list if people don't want
to hear about it - I don't know how much traffic there is, etc.)
Well if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading!
Larry David
can answer a few questions for me.
First, to help better understand where I'm coming from, a little
background. I studied EE in the 80's, using DOS, Mac, and Unix
machines. DOS was ok, Mac was cool, and Unix was awesome (and
Windows, when it arrived, was a blatant and poor rip-off of Mac OS -
and still is!) Later in the 90's I worked at GM for a while and used
a proprietary GUI (maybe by HP?) over Unix, and I was in heaven.
Terminal right there when I needed it (which wasn't all the time - I
was a user, not an admin or programmer), and a nice, uncluttered, non-
resource-wasting desktop - with switchable workspaces(!) so I could
have all kinds of windows up at once and stay organized.
At home I have had Macs since 98 or so - haven't owned a windows
machine since, to my great joy. I like Macs a lot, but there are
drawbacks, not the least of which is the price. (Also Apple's social/
political worldview is sometimes in conflict with my own, but that
has yet to keep me from buying their stuff.) I think Apple computers
are worth every penny they charge, but they are like Cadillacs, and I
drive a Daewoo Kalos (called an Aveo in the US). :-)
So my G4 powerbook is showing its age and I am thinking of a new
laptop. I use it for work (teaching math part-time, 80 hours a week,
since losing my job along with half the state), and rely on it
daily. I can't really afford a new macbook (though they look really
cool) - I've considered a refurbished one, but they are still a
little pricey for me. Long story short, I checked into Linux again
(knew about it for years, but never had a reason to investigate as I
was happy with Macs when I could afford them). Linux on a cheaper
laptop sounds promising; if it works and if I don't have to become a
programmer get software and hardware to work with it. (I'm also kind
of excited by the idea of FOSS - mostly the open source part, but
won't take the time to get into that now.)
Which leads to my questions:
1. I am under the impression that Linux (ubuntu in particular) is
much like the GUI-on-top-of-Unix OS that I loved at GM - only on my
little laptop and not a $30k workstation, and its "GNU Not Unix", and
its open source, etc.. - but the general idea is the same. Is this
the case? (This aspect of OSX is the main thing I like about it,
though the GUI is more than a bit overdone for my tastes.)
2. Does ubuntu use less system resources for the GUI in particular,
and generally have less bloat, than Windows and/or Mac OS? (I am
thinking about the built-in obsolescence of proprietary OS machines
and hoping that a Linux machine will have a longer lifespan and be
more tweekable to that end.)
3. Is there a good web filter for Linux? I use K-9 web protection
on my macs and it seems to work fine (but they don't seem to have a
Linux version, though it is freeware) - I like to have a filter to
help me and my kids avoid all the crap I don't want to run into on
the web...
4. Does anyone here do music on a Linux machine? What SW/HW do you
use? Ardour looks cool, but its hard to believe that it could be
really useful *and* free. (I use DP 4 on my G4s with an 828mkII, I
don't need all of its capabilities - but I do need a MIDI sequencer
and 24+ tracks of audio, with plug-in capability - and the ability to
use soft-synths would be nice too.) I have checked the alsa and
ffado sites for HW compatibility and all the devices listed seem
several years old - and many of them are "unkown" or "untested",
which makes me leery to be the guinea pig. At this point I would
still have my G4 desktop, but I am thinking about switching all my
machines to Linux, since I don't want to buy a new machine/software
every few years just to be able to do the same thing I could years
ago. (This question may best be taken off-list if people don't want
to hear about it - I don't know how much traffic there is, etc.)
Well if you've gotten this far, thanks for reading!
Larry David